Jose Mourinho's three-year reign at Chelsea came to an abrupt end on Thursday
as the Portuguese manager's fraught relationship with the club's Russian owner,
Roman Abramovich, finally reached breaking point.
An announcement that will
send shockwaves through English and European football came in the early hours of
Thursday morning with Chelsea claiming that Mourinho had left "by mutual
consent."
A terse statement posted on the London club's website stated:
"Chelsea Football Club and Jose Mourinho have agreed to part company today
(Thursday) by mutual consent."
Mourinho had reportedly informed Frank Lampard
and other senior players that he was on his way out on Wednesday evening and
late-night talks at Stamford Bridge concluded with confirmation of his
departure.
The Portuguese manager, who made his reputation by guiding FC
Porto to UEFA Champions League glory in 2004, has transformed the English
football landscape since taking over at Stamford Bridge in June 2004, winning
two Premier League titles in his first two years in charge, the FA Cup last
season and the League Cup in 2005 and 2007.
Of the 185 games he has been in
charge, Chelsea have won 124, drawn 40 and lost 21, a record that includes a
60-match unbeaten run in Premier League matches at Stamford Bridge.
The
statistics go some way towards justifying Mourinho's famous description of
himself as "a special one."
That comment was made in his first press
conference in England and it is a judgement that few Chelsea fans would dispute
after three years which saw the club end its 50-year wait to be crowned
champions and establish itself as one of the most feared teams in
Europe.
However, the success has failed to seduce Abramovich and the
Russian's relationship with his most outspoken employee turned sour last season
when he refused to come up with the funds Mourinho required to land his January
transfer targets, a stance the Portuguese believes contributed to Chelsea
conceding the Premier League title to Manchester United.
On the other side of
the feud, Abramovich has grown increasingly impatient with the fact that, after
investing nearly 500 million pounds (one billion dollars) in the club, Chelsea
have failed to conquer Europe and continue to lag behind the likes of Arsenal,
Barcelona and Manchester United in terms of entertainment value.
Tuesday's
disappointing 1-1 Champions League draw with Norwegian side Rosenberg - watched
by fewer than 25,000 fans - appears to have brought simmering tensions to the
boil, and with hindsight, Mourinho's pre-match comments about the need to buy
the best eggs to make the best omelette offered a hint that things were not
going smoothly behind the scenes.
Mourinho and Abramovich appeared to have
agreed to bury their differences over the summer and the manager had started
this campaign pledging that he would be a much more "chilled" figure than in his
first two seasons in England.
However, the strain of Chelsea's poor recent
form was evident on Saturday, when Mourinho tossed a flat-screen television set
to the ground in frustration over a disallowed goal in his side's 0-0 draw with
Blackburn.
The manager has also made no attempt to disguise his frustration
with Chelsea's misfiring striker Andriy Shevchenko, whose £30 million signing
from AC Milan is widely believed to have been ordered by Abramovich.
Mourinho
has also clashed with the Russian owner over backroom appointments, notably the
May 2005 recruitment of Dutchman Frank Arnesen as the club's youth/scouting
supremo and the appointment of Avram Grant as director of football.
Grant is
likely to be in charge of Chelsea for Sunday's trip to Manchester United but it
is thought likely that Abramovich will be looking to bring in a high-profile
successor to Mourinho.
Russia coach Guus Hiddink and former Germany boss
Jurgen Klinsmann are likely to top the speculative short-list, which may also
include Sevilla's highly-rated Juande Ramos.
Godspeed, Jose Mourinho. I hope either Guus or Jurgen gets it. Not sure about Juande. Either way, it should be nice GET! for Chelsea and Roman Abramovich.
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